Chapter 107

Darren

All eyes were on me.

By now, everyone had noticed the glaring lack of Aria’s presence beside me. And if the furious expression on my face, the heaving of my chest, was any indication, they knew that something was wrong.

“She’s in a coma,” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

Lily shot to her feet. “Coma?” she repeated.

“She’s been unconscious for three days now,” I somehow explained around the sudden lump in my throat. “And Dr. Edward couldn’t figure out why. But now I think I know.” I reached into my pocket and withdrew the note that my father had written, which was now wrinkled from being clenched in my fist.

Liam, confused, moved forward. He snatched the note from my hand and unfolded it, his brow furrowing deeply as he read the contents. “Charles…” he murmured, low enough so only I could hear. His eyes met mine, and I nodded.

“I believe that Charles, my father’s Beta, may be trying to harm Aria.”

A murmur rippled through the room, uneasy whispers passing between the gathered employees. I raised a hand to silence them, and the room fell quiet once more.

“This was framed as an accident, but I don’t believe it was,” I continued, my tone hardening. “I believe that Charles attacked her, and now he is on the run. I’m not sure of his motives exactly, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that he wants her incapacitated, or even dead. And we have to stop him.”

As I finished speaking, a fresh hush filled the room. Lily’s face went pale, while Liam’s jaw tightened. Brandon exchanged a concerned glance with Melissa, both of them clearly struggling to process what I had just said.

But I wasn’t finished.

“I know that many of you have had your doubts about Aria,” I continued, pacing slowly across the front of the room. “About whether she truly belongs here—about whether she’s worthy of being your Luna. But let me make this clear: Aria has done nothing but prove herself since the moment she stepped foot into our world. She has faced challenges none of us could ever imagine, and she has done so with grace, courage, and a strength that I don’t think any of us fully appreciated.”

I paused, my gaze locking onto Lily, who flinched slightly under my scrutiny. “She’s your Luna in every way that matters,” I said, dropping my voice. “And I’m not going to stand by and let someone hurt her—someone who should have been protecting her, just as you all should have been protecting her.”

The room was silent once more—so silent you could hear a pin drop. I could practically taste the uncertainty in their eyes, and frankly, I couldn’t blame them.

To them, Aria was an outsider. Raised by humans. Untrustworthy, and maybe even dangerous.

But deep down, we all knew that she wasn’t like that. And deep down, we all knew that being human didn’t automatically make someone evil or dangerous. Liam knew especially—the only one who knew about Lucas’s true nature. The only one who knew the truth about my sister, and how she had risked everything to love a human man.

Just as I was willing to risk everything for Aria. The white wolf raised by humans. The girl who might as well have been a human herself, and yet she still cared for me as a pup.

The girl who had saved my life, and whose own life now needed saving.

I took a deep breath and turned to face the others once more, preparing myself to continue my impassioned speech. But before I could, Lily spoke up.

“Alpha Darren,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. “You’re… You’re right.”

My eyebrows shot up as Lily turned to face the other employees. “We’ve all failed her. I’ve failed her. And I… I don’t want to fail her again.” Her voice broke on the last word, and I saw the sheen of tears in her eyes as she lowered her head. “I want to make it right. For our pack. For our Luna.”

Liam spoke up next. “I’m with you, Alpha. Aria deserves our loyalty, and we’ll find Charles before he gets away with this.”

One by one, the others followed suit. Brandon, Melissa, and even the quieter members of the team stood and pledged their support, determined to do right by our Luna. It was a far cry from the coldness and doubt they had shown Aria in the past, and for the first time in days, I felt a flicker of hope.

“Thank you,” I said. “Your Luna deserves better. And we’re going to make sure she gets the justice she deserves.”

Over the next half hour, we scoured the pack records, which contained all of our pack’s credit card purchases and whereabouts, and somehow managed to track Charles down; he had purchased a train ticket heading east.

“If he’s heading east, there’s only one train he could be on right now,” Brandon said, his brow knit together in thought. “It’s bound for the pack lands controlled by the Silver Ridge pack.”

I clenched my jaw. Of course. The Silver Ridge pack had been at odds with us for decades, always looking for a way to undermine our pack. If Charles was heading there, it could mean he was seeking asylum—or worse, maybe even plotting something more dangerous.

“Then we have to catch that train,” I said, already heading for the door.

The drive to the train station was tense. Liam gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles white against the leather, while Lily, Melissa, and Brandon sat squeezed together in the back. The city streets blurred past as Liam broke more than one traffic rule to make it to the train station in time, but I didn’t care. My mind was elsewhere.

Aria’s face, pale and still in that infirmary bed, haunted me. Every second that passed without her by my side felt like a knife twisting deeper into my chest. We had to catch Charles and bring him to justice for what he did.

If not for the pack, then for her.

It was the least we could do.

By the time we reached the station, the train was already preparing to depart. The sound of the whistle echoed through the air as passengers hurried to board, their breath visible in the cold evening air. We barely made it onto the platform before the doors began to close, but Liam’s sharp command to the conductor bought us just enough time to slip inside.

“Lily, Melissa, Brandon,” I said, turning to them. “Spread out and wait for my signal. Liam and I will search the cars.”

They nodded, their expressions grim, before splitting off in different directions. Liam and I moved forward, the narrow aisle of the train car feeling claustrophobic.

It wasn’t until we reached one of the quieter cars near the back of the train that we found him.

Charles was sitting alone in a booth, his back to the window and his eyes focused on the glass of whiskey in front of him. He looked almost… relaxed, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. But the tension in his shoulders and the way his fingers drummed against the table betrayed him.

He didn’t see us coming until it was too late. He had nowhere to go.

I stepped forward, pulling the folded note from my pocket and tossing it onto the table in front of him. The paper landed with a soft thud, the words scrawled in my father’s shaky handwriting staring back at him.

Charles’s gaze flicked to the note, his expression unreadable as he picked it up and read the words. For a moment, he didn’t move. Then he looked up at me, and his dark eyes narrowed into slits.

“Charles,” I said before he could utter a word, “You are officially under arrest. By order of the Alpha of Moonglow pack.”